By Mary Alice Murphy
Heather Bergman served as facilitator for the Gila National Forest Plan revision meeting, which would involve participants going to three stations to make their comments.
Adam Mendonca, Gila National Forest supervisor, welcomed everyone. "We appreciate your coming out to help us in the process. Stay engaged, because we have a couple of years left."
Grant County Commissioner Alicia Edwards said she had attended the technical meeting earlier and "had so much fun. I heard a lot of feedback. It's really important that this is a long process, because it is critically important for our forest. I invite everyone to be as honest and up front as possible. I have the feeling the Forest Service is going to evaluate all input."
Matt Schultz, GNF planner, gave an overview of "where we are in the forest plan revision. The plan dates from 1986, so it's overdue. This plan will last us for 15 years or more. It's a great opportunity for your ideas to shape forest management."
"We have wrapped up the assessment phase and have posted the assessment, as well as the documents that describe the need for change," Schultz continued. "We released them earlier as draft and appreciate the input. Publishing the notice of intent to adopt starts the formal process. We invite government officials, non-governmental organizations and the public to participate."
The plan sets out the forest vision, strategy and guidance. "We develop the plan components to meet the desired conditions the objectives, standards, guidelines and suitability," Schultz said.
The plan will also develop management approaches, management of geographic areas, distinctive roles and contributions, a monitoring plan, timber suitability, priority watersheds, identify lands that may have potential wilderness characteristics, a wild and scenic river eligibility study, significant issues and alternatives, and environmental analysis.
The plan will integrate components to provide for multiple use, sustainability, ecological integrity and ecosystem services.
It will create a strategic and practical framework for managing the forest, and "on balance, best meet the needs of the people." Management must be within the Forest Service authority, inherent capability and fiscal capacity.
The Forest Service considers stakeholder engagement important, because it helps develop a plan with broad support to implement the plan, and is an inclusive and transparent process.
Schultz said for the current phase, the forest is planning community meetings, technical meetings, open houses, field trips, a desired conditions workshop in early August and review and comment periods.
The timeline is for the initial plan components, winter 2017-18 for feedback, development of preliminary alternatives in early 2018, environmental analysis for the environment impact statement 2018-19 and record of decision sometime in 2019.
Schultz asked participants to use sticky notes on maps for field trip suggestions. "We plan two two-day workshops, with one in Silver City and one in Reserve."
Three stations were set up for participants to make their wants known. One was on the potentially noticeable areas on the forest and whether they could become wilderness areas; the second on desired future conditions; and the third, a grid to place in order what each person thinks are the most important values on the forest, using already printed cards, or blank ones that could be written on to specify values.
Nessa Natharius and Sam Haas led the desired conditions station and asked participants to describe their desired conditions and what services look like. "Everything else is driven by desired conditions," Natharius said. "They are the drivers for the plan. They are the outcomes that are achievable, not actions. The conditions must be clear and concise, so that progress can be measured or evaluated.
Another station had photos for people to put sticky notes on that answered three questions: Is it substantially noticeable, why or why not and what change in circumstance would change the answer each person put down to the first question.
The values station let each participant place cards in order of their strongest values they want for the forest.